Out of everyone in this food chain, at the end of the day, only I, the author, am publicly recognized. The designer isn’t, except in rare cases like with Chip Kidd. Neither is the printer. The publisher’s name is, at best, a fetish of insiders and book enthusiasts who know who the ‘best’ publishers are. But the book is a billboard for and a direct extension of the author. I also don’t entirely agree that writing is becoming devalued. Some writing is. And people giving it away for free doesn’t help. But brands needs good writing more than ever now that the internet is a common marketplace. Writing for the traditional outlets might not be the way to get paid, but being able to  communicate well via the written word is an incredibly valuable skill. (Three of our 5 employees are CW majors.)

In any case, I (this is Michael FitzGerald, a founder here at Submittable) recently realized that I had never really thought about the business of publishing when I was exclusively trying to be an author. I assumed that if I worked hard and created a book, money would take care of itself.  Never in a million years did it occur to me that part of the process would involve getting a great designer paid. In retrospect, this seems a bit narcissistic. I completely ignored all the other people I’d need to make the book a public (and sellable) object. Now that I have a company, I realize I don’t think twice about making sure everyone is paid for the work involved to make and sell the product that is Submittable. Most of our employees work tirelessly with little to no personal recognition. But, we pay them, not much by industry standards, but something. And in the end, if the stars align, I’m paid something too. I don’t think 1 individual paying 15K upfront is the answer, but the process should be more transparent and people should be paid for their efforts. 

Simon & Schuster probably isn’t as devious as we suspect. (Although, I do feel the American legal entity known as a “corporation” is basically license to do whatever you want in the name of profit.) But really, S&S probably came up with that price from their own cost analysis of how much it cost to pay all the professionals involved combined with some standard profit margin (I’d guess around 20%)? Roxane says her press, Tiny Hardcore, can put a book out for significantly cheaper. I believe her, but also suspect she doesn’t pay herself or anyone  an annual salary to run the press, which is fine, but makes it a different thing entirely than a public company like S&S who has thousands of employees and their families to think of.

Also, people rarely get the price right with their first version of a product, so the 15K will mostly likely go up or down depending on demand and competition. One of the many problems with traditional publishers, esp. in NYC, is that they’ve grown to mature businesses with pretty insane fixed-costs but are now in an industry that’s upside down. My guess is the S&S bean counters think $15,000 is pretty cheap.  Most likely the market will tell them differently.  

I don’t disagree that charging someone $15,000 dollars seems more than craven, but it sounds more complicated than just some malicious entity trying to cash in on someone’s vanity.